Phyllomedusa 14-1.Indd

Short CommuniCation A new threat for the endangered frog Atelognathus reverberii (Anura: Batrachylidae) in Argentinean Patagonia

Mauricio Sebastián Akmentins1, Melina Alicia Velasco2, Camila Alejandra Kass2,3, and Federico Pablo Kacoliris2,3 1 Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Jujuy (CIT-JUJUY), CONICET-UNJu, Av. Bolivia 1711 (4600), Jujuy, Argentina. E-mail: [email protected]. 2 Sección Herpetología, División Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Paseo del bosque s/n, La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: [email protected]. 3 [email protected].

Keywords: anurans, Argentina, conservation, Laguna Raimunda Frog, mass mortality.

Palavras-chave: anuros, Argentina, conservação, mortalidade em massa, Rã-da-Lagoa-Raimunda.

Atelognathus reverberii (Cei, 1969) is an (-41.288738° S, -66.831912° W; 1182 m a.s.l.), endemic terrestrial frog that inhabits volcanic Somuncura Plateau, Río Negro Province, clay lagoons (mostly semi-permanent or Argentina (Figure 1). temporary). These lagoons are scattered A total of 441 individuals of Atelognathus throughout the desertic Somuncura Plateau of reverberii was found trapped in a water pit dug Argentinean Patagonia (Cei 1969, Martinazzo et in the ground about 15 m from the shore of a al. 2011). This frog species was listed as semi-permanent volcanic clay lagoon, with an Endangered in the IUCN’s red list (IUCN 2014) extension of about 0.4 km2 (Figure 2). Eleven of and as Vulnerable in the last categorization of them were already dead. These specimens were Argentinean amphibian fauna (Vaira et al. 2012). deposited as voucher in La Plata Museum (MLP A5758-68). After the incident, we released the conducted to assess the population status of the 430 live individuals in the shore of the lagoon Laguna Raimunda Frog (Atelognathus reverberii), and we placed a fence around the pit to avoid we registered a source of mass mortality for this more incidental mortality of Laguna Raimunda species at the locality of Laguna Azul Frogs. The water pit was 0.6 m in diameter and 1.5 m deep, and the height of the water level was 30 cm. These water pits, named “jagüeles,” are dug Received 15 April 2015. by local residents near the water sources to Accepted 8 June 2015. Distributed June 2015.

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A B

Figure 1. (A) Geographic location (in yellow) of Somuncura Plateau in Patagonia, Argentina. (B) Detail of Somuncura Plateau; blue dot indicates the location of the Laguna Azul. (C) Water pit location in Laguna Azul.

Phyllomedusa - 14(1), June 2015 64 A new threat for the endangered Pagatonian frog Atelognathus reverberii

B C

Figure 2. (A) General view of the Jagüel (water pit) where the specimens of Atelognathus reverberii were found trapped. (B) A closer view of the Jagüel (circles show dead frogs). (C) A better look of the rescued frog specimens.

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cattle consumption; they act as pitfalls for frogs. Acknowledgments.—We thank the fauna Because the frogs cannot climb out of them, they keepers Ariel Lapa, Valeria Pazos and Mariela either drown or dehydrate. Dehydration inside Guzman for their hospitality and logistical these water pits has been observed twice: in November 2013 in the same area and in other “jagüel” located at the type locality of the thank Linda Trueb for her valuable suggestions species, at Estancia El Puntudo (Cei 1969). that improved the manuscript. This work was Cei (1969) mentioned having found dead partially funded by The Rufford Small Grants; frogs drowned in jagüeles, but he did not suggest Conservation, Research and Education Oppor- that this might be a threat for the populations of tunities International (CREOI); and is part of the Atelognathus reverberii. Our observations pro- FCNyM Cururú, UNLP program. vide a realistic outlook of the possible impact of jagüeles on frog populations. This human References intervention should be considered as a threat to this terrestrial frog in its natural habitat. Cei, J. M. 1969. The Patagonian telmatobiid fauna of the Other threats to the Laguna Raimunda Frog volcanic Somuncura Plateau of Argentina. Journal of are its reduced geographical distribution, Herpetology 3: 1–18. restricted up to 100 m from the edge of water IUCN. 2014. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. bodies, and the degradation of its reproductive Version 2014.3. http://www.iucnredlist.org. Captured on habitat by the extensive cattle farming. Moreover, 6 April 2015. subpopulations of this species are isolated and Martizazzo, L. B., N. G. Basso, and C. Úbeda. 2011. thus vulnerable to inbreeding, genetic drift, and Atelognathus reverberii. Argentina: Rio Negro. stochasticity (i.e., climatic change). Herpetological Review 42: 236. Despite the low density of people in the Vaira, M., M. S. Akmentins, M. Attademo, D. Baldo, D. Somuncura Plateau, the impact of poor water Barrasso, S. Barrionuevo, N. Basso, B. Blotto, S. Cairo, management could drive the decline of the populations of Atelognathus reverberii. It would be useful to implement a population monitoring Ingaramo, C. Junges, R. Lajmanovich, J. N. Lescano, F. Marangoni, L. Martinazzo, R. Marti, L. Moreno, G. S. program for the Laguna Raimunda Frog. Natale, J. M. Perez Iglesias, P. Peltzer, L. Quiroga, S. Concrete conservation plans should be developed Rosset, E. Sanabria, L. Sanchez, E. Schaefer, C. Úbeda, to provide local residents a water-extraction/ and V. Zaracho. 2012. Categorización del estado de storage system for supplying water to cattle that does not contribute to anuran mortality. Cuadernos de Herpetología, 26 (Supl. 1): 131–159.

Editor: Jaime Bertoluci

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